Sunday, July 01, 2012

Links & Reviews

- As we prepare for another Rare Book School week (thankfully with restored electricity!), a look back at the last session: Erin Blake, who took John Bidwell and Tim Barrett's History of European and American Papermaking class, reflects on her experiences in a post for The Collation.

- Document thief Barry Landau was sentenced to seven years in federal prison and was ordered to pay more than $46,000 in restitution. The judge also ordered Landau to keep out of "all archives and libraries" when he's released. No sentencing date has been set for Jason Savedoff, Landau's accomplice, who has also entered a guilty plea in relation to the thefts. New evidence has emerged recently of additional Landau thefts, including from the home of former Bill Clinton secretary Betty Currie. Kudos to the Baltimore Sun for their very good reporting throughout this case. More coverage here.

- Travis McDade weighed in on the Landau sentence in an OUP blog post, noting the details of Landau's sentence and the charges he'd faced, and reflecting on a full decade of archives thefts.

- Jerry Morris offers us a virtual tour of his collection of Mary Hyde-related material.

- From Julian Barnes, "My Life as a Bibliophile."

- A large collection of Robert Louis Stevenson material has been donated to the National Library of Scotland and Napier University in Edinburgh.

- An atlas stolen from the Swedish Royal Library has been recovered in New York, having been purchased by Graham Arader from Sotheby's in 2003.

- The second issue of the Journal of Digital Humanities is up!

- Two books from George III's library have been reported missing from the British Library.

- The July AE Monthly is out, and includes some must-read pieces, including Susan Halas on another round of library deaccessioning and Bruce McKinney on the George Washington book sold at auction recently.

- From J.L. Bell at Boston1775, "Buying George Washington's Books."

- The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe database is now live. More here.

- Another don't-miss post this week is Brooke Palmieri's 8vo post "An Introduction to Paper Computers."

Reviews

- Callum Roberts' The Ocean of Life; review by Mark Kurlansky in the Washington Post.